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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to make my mother clean up her own accident?

715 replies

LaLaCascada · 29/03/2017 21:06

For many years my Mum has had a bit of a problem with sudden urge to wee. She's 70 and has given birth twice. She hates going to the doctor and has always suffered a variety of ailments about which there is much moaning and zero action.

During a recent visit to my parents I was driving my mum home from Sainsbury's in a rather nice rented car. It's only about a mile but there was a bit of school traffic so we had to sit a few minutes - about 1 song on the radio so definitely less than 5 mins- and she started panicking and saying get me home I really need the loo. I said hang on, it's only two more turns, keep calm and look the traffic is moving now, she snapped it's too late, I've wet meself. and then went silent.

Back at her house she went straight to the bathroom and sorted herself out while I unpacked the shopping and put the kettle on. When she came out I said have a coffee and where's some stuff to clean the car.

Then I said come on and she made a big show with getting her walking stick and hobbling to the car parked on the drive - 20 steps?- as I followed with the kitchen roll and keys. I unlocked the car and waited a moment and when she didn't respond I said clean the seat please which she did do but with a lot of huff and puff. My dad and husband and daughter were there and noticed us going out to the car but I just said we had to get something. Then we carried on the evening like normal. DH noticed things were a bit off but just assumed a little disagreement had happened.

At no point was I rude or shouty or anything. I was a bit cheesed off because we had a long journey the next day which meant I would sit there when DH was driving but it wasn't like she puked or poohed.

I spent the night researching because I care and don't want my mum to live like this and did encourage Mum to make a doctor's appointment and she is now getting some help that made her worse at first but she now is improving a bit. I haven't said anything about it until now so as not to embarrass my mum. HOWEVER there has been a certain chill since it happened. It hasn't been mentioned except to say the doctor knows about it and the making of various follow up appointments.

So, was I being unreasonable to expect her to clean up her own urine?

OP posts:
springflowers11 · 30/03/2017 08:28

She should have been wearing something in case she had an accident
Can't you read? she was!

Im.also sure its possible that although OPs mother walks with a stick she may have still exaggerated it a bit in a fit of pique

You think the stick is a fashion statement?

springflowers11 · 30/03/2017 08:30

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

HoldBackTheRain · 30/03/2017 08:30

Whether she did it to the cat, or her mum did it to the cat is beside the point - she indicated that at least she didn't do the same to her OWN MOTHER.

FFS

LouKout · 30/03/2017 08:32

No clearly i dont think that. Hmm

HemiDemiSemiquaver · 30/03/2017 08:34

We don't really even know if the mother was planning eventually to get round to cleaning the seat, or whether she might have offered, or whether she was too embarrassed about it, or wasn't sure what exactly to do, or whatever - it sounds like she didn't get the chance, being taken out there in a humiliating way and told to clean the seat, in such a cold way, with her daughter standing there watching.

It's not so much saying the OP should expect to clean it up; I don't think there is necessarily that expectation, but that she could have dealt with it in so much less humiliating and patronising way.

What if it had been a guest in your house? You probably would have said don't worry, not a problem, and then they'd have offered to clean it perhaps, but if they didn't, you'd have assumed it was humiliating and they were feeling awful, and you'd have tried to make them more comfortable by pretending it didn't happen, smoothing the situation over in whatever way you could.

It sounds like you expected that if you forced her to clean it up, that 'consequence' would be enough to stop her doing it again and force her to seek treatment so that it didn't happen again. That's punishment, the same as for a small child who you are teaching, and even then, I don't think it's a very effective way of teaching. She probably has to clean herself up a lot after accidents, and that in itself isn't enough to make you seek treatment, just enough to make you depressed about it.

You don't know how many articles she might have read about it, etc. - the GP doens't have magic solutions for things like urge/spasms. I've already tried what they can offer; I knew what the physio was going to do; I'd already done most of the recommended strategies. None of it really helps, and she might be in a similar place and not really think there's much point going to the GP. The lack of belief, being told you're not trying, being told it's in your head, being told to just go home and do your pelvic floor exercises some more, the lack of understanding about just how embarrassing and anxiety-producing it is, worry about smells and stuff, all of those are reasons that I don't go back to the GP. .

She might be frightened that it's the start of the lack of control that comes with aging. She might worry it's more serious. She might be ashamed enough already. I doubt she suddenly felt that cleaning up one car seat was horrible enough that she had better seek treatment so she didn't have to do it again. If anything, she probably felt that she couldn't stand to be treated that way by someone she loved, knowing that they thought she was disgusting and lazy and always moaning but never doing anything about it, so seeking treatment might help that side of it. It might work, but it's hardly the most compassionate way of going about it.

What if the doctors can't do anything, and now she knows what you think of her and her accidents?!

randomer · 30/03/2017 08:35

assuming this is genuine......perhaps the OP was unkind but having kindly suggested the same thing over and over perhaps she was at a loss as what to do next.

Not everybody has a lovely relationship with a lovely Mum.

PoisonousSmurf · 30/03/2017 08:35

You sound cruel Angry. Grow up and look after your mum.

northernshepherdess · 30/03/2017 08:44

My mother in law blocked her toilet several times.. and I'm germophobic.
We also had a very strained relationship and she didn't really like me much.
I still unblocked and cleaned her toilet and bathroom because she couldn't do it herself. And I made light hearted of it so she didn't feel too upset.
Its called compassion.
Surely you wouldn't pile a child's arms with cleaning products and point toward the car... as elderly many of us return to a childlike state.
Oh the irony that you and your sibling were the most likely cause of her wonky bladder.

StarUtopia · 30/03/2017 08:45

Your poor Mum. This has actually really upset me.

Grow the fuck up. She's your mum. She wiped up your poo, wee and vomit for years, I doubt she tried to humiliate you in the process. And this is how you repay her?

Literally speechless. You sound like a right cow.

hackmum · 30/03/2017 08:49

Like StarUtopia, I found this story very upsetting. How awful as an adult woman to suffer incontinence. Maybe one day it will be you, OP.

MipMipMip · 30/03/2017 08:56

I'm going to be shot down for this but I support the OP. Hear me out. And I am of course making some assumptions that the situation is similar to one I've experienced.

My gran is incontinent. For a long time. We tried everything we could to get her to the doctor. She got really bad which meant being cleaned up after and causing skin problems etc to herself. For well over a year at her worst. She used massive tena ladies. Which weren't big enough.

We finally got her to a doctor who spotted a UTI. she still has problems but they are FAR more manageable. She had convinced herself that nothing could be done and it didn't affect anyone but herself. It did.

It sounds to me that the OP had to do some tough love to get her mum to the doctor and that it worked. She said her mum is now improving. It must have been horrible to do but I actually think she was pretty brave to do it. Sometimes loving someone means not making things easy for them but making them face up to reality.

Of course, I could have got this wrong and the OP is a sadistic bitch who enjoys humiliating old ladies. But I don't think I have.

Cluesue · 30/03/2017 08:58

Your mum cleaned up your piss,shit and vomit did she not?

Yes she should seek medical attention,wear pads,but she needs empathy and compassion not what you did.

LouKout · 30/03/2017 08:59

I dont think you have either Mip

GreenPeppers · 30/03/2017 09:09

My parents are the same age. Neither of them would ever have expected me to clean after them.
My gran when she was older (nearly 90) had similar problems and had some real difficulties walking (and had some since she was in her early 60). Again, she would never have expected anyone to clean after her.

So I have to say I am surprised at the attitude of the OP's mother. At her place, both my parents or my gran would have been mortified of giving a rental car back that stunk of wee. And they all would have tried to clean it up. And which point, someone would have stepped in to help (rather than doing it because it's expected and after all, they did change your nappy when you were little type of attitude).

The other side of it is what Mip mentioned too.

FemelleReynard · 30/03/2017 09:11

She's your mother, she cleaned up your piss and shit for many years and you wouldn't do hers? What a vile cow you sound. I'm sure she was embarrassed enough about it happening without her daughter then humiliating her into cleaning it up. Power trip maybe OP? Do you like to assert your 'authority' over the weak and vulnerable to make yourself feel good? Shit thing to do!

RockyBird · 30/03/2017 09:18

If my mother had not bothered to seek medical attention or at least wear a pad then pissed herself in my car I'd be fucked off. If she was capable of cleaning it up, why shouldn't she clean it herself?

GinAndTunic · 30/03/2017 09:18

Yabu. You shamed and humiliated her. There was no need for it. It was an accident, you could have cleaned it. She's 70 fgs.

This expresses my feelings perfectly.

Majorgoodwinschickenbeatstrump · 30/03/2017 09:20

Deeps breaths... then I'd have done the minimum then took it for a valet (and told them a kid had done it). I would have then pretended to my mum I'd hardly noticed. Other posters are right, your mum has done far more for you and she will be absolutely mortified.

BakeOffBiscuits · 30/03/2017 09:21

How the heck do you get a seat clean after someone has wee'd on it?Confused surely it would seep into the seat and you'd never get it out.

misses point of thread

RockyBird · 30/03/2017 09:23

bakeoff yep, relieved for op it is only a hire car. Next hot day it will be rank.

HemiDemiSemiquaver · 30/03/2017 09:24

but getting her to the doctor doesn't have to be by humiliating her!!

It's not like it's the first time she will have had to clean up, and she'll have never suddenly thought "oh that's right, it's really not nice to clean up, so I will go to the doctor after all". It's not a "teachable moment". She might well have thought "my daughter thinks I'm disgusting, I do too, I am so ashamed and humiliated now, I have to go to the doctor however afraid and unhappy I am about things, because she thinks I'm so disgusting". Yeah, I guess it works, but for the right reason?! And what if the doctor can't do anything, and she knows what you think of her? She must think you clearly believe she can help it and are doing it deliberately, since that is when you try to 'teach' people (or pets) through consequences.

It's not tough love to do it like that. It's humiliation and fear.

It doesn't address the problems of why the mum felt she couldn't go to the doctor, it doesn't make her feel ok about it.

It's nothing really to do with who cleaned it up in the end, it's the way it was done and how she was treated. Maybe she would have got round to it later, or would have got on to it if she'd been asked nicely, or if the daughter had started to do it and the mum realised what she was doing, etc, then she might have - but sounds like she wouldn't have got the chance for any of it, as the OP was angry and annoyed about it to start with.

Rossigigi · 30/03/2017 09:25

Sorry but you were unreasonable in my opinion. Glad she is getting help though.

sucue · 30/03/2017 09:27

I'm wondering about the best way to clean the seat too.

I'm getting on a bit and have a bad cough.

Bantanddec · 30/03/2017 09:33

If I'd have pissed myself in my daughters car I would have been so mortified I'd have offered to clean it up myself.

Euripidesralph · 30/03/2017 09:33

Blimey....I'm usually the greatest advocate for expecting a rents not to be great and instilling boundaries but you were just horrible

I wouldn't do that to anyone and I'm trulyou not overly nice or insipid but it's basic human courtesy not to humiliate another person

If she had been abusive or nasty I would query why you were spending time with her but seriously op take a really good look in the mirror

I dislike my mil to an intense degree and I still wouldn't have done this to her